an important organic compound widely used in chemistry and industry

1. Extraction & Sample Preparation

• Lipid and volatile‐aroma extraction – Because of its strong non-polarity, n-hexane is the go-to solvent for isolating edible oils, essential-oil fractions, pesticide residues and other hydrophobic analytes from plant or food matrices. Its selectivity means fewer polar co-extractives and cleaner downstream chromatograms. pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov

• Clean-up for GC/GC–MS – Many residue-analysis methods (e.g., AOAC, EPA) elute the non-polar layer into n-hexane prior to silica- or Florisil-based clean-up so the final injection solvent matches the non-polar GC column phase. researchgate.net

2. Chromatography & Separation Science

• Biphasic CPC/HPLC solvent systems – In centrifugal-partition chromatography, the HEMWat family (n-hexane/ethyl acetate/methanol/water) provides tunable polarity ranges for purifying natural-product libraries or chiral compounds. rotachrom.com

3. Synthetic & Organometallic Chemistry

• Reaction medium / reagent carrier – Commercial alkyllithium, Grignard and trialkyl-aluminum reagents are routinely supplied in n-hexane because it is anhydrous, inert toward strong bases and has a low dielectric constant that favors organometallic reactivity.

• Work-up & crystallisation washes – Hexane (or hexane/EtOAc mixtures) are widely used to precipitate products or remove non-polar by-products before vacuum drying.

4. Polymer & Materials Research

• Slurry polymerisation diluent – Industrial and bench-scale Ziegler–Natta or metallocene processes for HDPE/LLDPE suspend growing polymer particles in n-hexane, controlling viscosity and heat removal while staying below PE solubility limits. pubs.acs.org

• Solvent-assisted depolymerisation / up-cycling – Recent studies show that pretreating low-density PE in hot n-hexane enhances mass transfer and yields during catalytic hydrogenolysis to fuel-range liquids. sciencedirect.com

5. Surface Cleaning & Device Fabrication

Ultra-dry n-hexane is favoured for degreasing photolithography masks, removing vacuum-grease films, or rinsing microfluidic chips prior to plasma bonding, because it evaporates rapidly and leaves almost no residue.

6. Toxicology & Occupational-Health Research

• n-Hexane is itself a model neurotoxicant; animal and in-vitro work explores its metabolite 2,5-hexanedione and the mechanism of axonal degeneration, informing exposure limits and PPE guidelines in industry. ncbi.nlm.nih.govncbi.nlm.nih.gov

PropertyImplication for lab work